Nancy Dickmann - Fighting to Survive World War II: Terrifying True Stories

large guns, such as cannons or missile launchers, that require several soldiers to load, aim, and firea long metal blade attached to the end of a musket or riflea person who is not in the militarya person who believes in a system in which goods and property are owned by the government and shared by alla prison camp where masses of people are held under harsh conditionsthe organized killing of an entire racial or cultural groupto do with the production of electricity from moving watera member of the armed forces who is captured by enemy forces during combata set amount of something allotted to a person each daya place where people who have had to leave their homes can receive shelter, food, and wateran ethnic group, originating from northwest India, which migrated to Europe and North Americaa person whose mission is to destroy goods, buildings, or infrastructure that are crucial to the enemys war effortto bombard, or attack with small bombs fired from a cannona military blockade of a city with the goal of forcing it to surrender by cutting off suppliesa country that existed from 19221991 and was made up of Russia and fourteen smaller republicsa Nazi organization that began as Hitlers bodyguards but eventually took control of the police and the concentration camps

1. Dickmann, Nancy. The Horror of World War II. Deadly History. North Mankato: Capstone Press, 2018.
2. Nicholson, Dorinda. Remember World War II: Kids Who Survived Tell Their Stories. Remember. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2015.
3. Poe, Mayumi Shimose. Alice on the Island: A Pearl Harbor Survival Story. Girls Survive. North Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2019.

1. : To the bad boys... Airey Neave. They Have Their Exits. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953, p. 57.
2. : With a handshake... Airey Neave. Ibid, p. 90.
3. : Why do you not..? Airey Neave. Ibid, p. 91.
4. , 15:20 Accessed on January 15, 2019.
5. : Run! Elena Kochina. Blockade Diary: Under Siege in Leningrad, 194142. New York: Ardis Publishers, 2014, p. 32.
6. : Locked in a cell... Damien Lewis. Hunting the Nazi Bomb: The Special Forces Mission to Sabotage Hitlers Deadliest Weapon. London: Quercus Editions, 2016, p. 358.

1. Harrell, Edgar. Out of the Depths: An Unforgettable WWII Story of Survival, Courage, and the Sinking of the USS Indianapolis. Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 2005.
2. Inber, Vera. Pochti tri goda. Leningrad Diary. New York: Martins Press, 1971.
3. Kochina, Elena. Blockade Diary: Under Siege in Leningrad, 194142. Ardis Publishers, 2014.
4. Lewis, Damien. Hunting the Nazi Bomb: The Special Forces Mission to Sabotage Hitlers Deadliest Weapon. Quercus, 2016.
5. Mears, Ray. The Real Heroes of Telemark. Hodder and Stoughton, 2003.
6. Neave, Airey. They Have Their Exits. Barnsley: Hodder and Stoughton, 1953.
7. Onoda, Hiroo. No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1999.
8. Reid, Anna. Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege, 194144. London: Bloomsbury, 2011.

Nancy Dickmann has written more than 150 nonfiction books for children, specializing in science and history. Before becoming an author, she worked for many years as an editor and publisher of childrens books.

As he was marched across the bridge spanning the moat, Airey Neave looked up in dismay at the castle in front of him. It loomed forbiddingly over the town of Colditz, Germany. The fortress was hundreds of years old and stood on a high, rocky spur. On three sides its walls ended in steep rock faces sloping down to the ground below. The British officer had already escaped from one camp, but escaping from this one would be much harder.

The previous year, after just a few months of combat in France, Neave had been wounded and captured by the Germans. After he recovered, he was taken from northern France, through Belgium and the Netherlands, into Germany. He found himself in a (POW) camp in the town of Spangenberg.

Airey Neave

Neave hated being a prisoner. The camp was filled with officers from the British and French air forces. Life there was repetitive and dull, and there was never enough to eat. Neave wanted to be back with the army, fighting against the Germans. But if he tried to escape he would be risking his life.

In February 1941 he was sent to a different camp. This one was in a part of German-occupied Poland. Neave soon hatched an escape plan. He knew his freedom would be difficult to achieve. If he made it out of the camp, he would have to travel many miles to the Soviet frontier. He teamed up with Norman Forbes, a fellow British officer who could speak German.

In April the two men made their escape from camp. Posing as civilian workers, they began their journey to freedom. It took four days of walking through the countryside, dodging officials, and sleeping where they could, until they reached the border gate. Unfortunately, they were stopped by a guard who demanded their identification papers. They had none.

Neave and Forbes were arrested and taken to be interrogated by the Gestapothe much-feared German secret police. Because they had a map of the border area, at first the Germans thought the two were spies. As spies, they could be shot. But after intense questioning, the men were sent back to the POW camp.

Back at camp, Neave and Forbes were thrown into solitary confinement. Their small cells were barely tall enough to stand in. They were eventually released, and not long after, a guard woke Neave in the middle of the night and ordered him to pack. Neave demanded to know where they were going. To the bad boys camp, the guard replied with a laugh.

The Germans chose Colditz as the site of their most high-security POW camp. This was where they sent prisoners with a history of escape attempts. The castle was more than 400 miles (644 kilometers) from any land not under German control. Combined with its thick walls and clifftop location, this made it escape-proofor so the Germans thought.

However putting together officers who had already made successful escapes turned out to be a terrible idea. The prisoners shared their skills and knowledge, making the camp a hotbed for escape attempts. Not long after Neaves arrival in May 1941, he watched as German guards caught a group of prisoners attempting to escape through a tunnel. Inspired, Neave began planning his own escape.

Neave decided to try a different approach. He planned to disguise himself as a German soldier and march out the front gate. But that was easier said than done. It took months to assemble a fake uniform. He traded out of wood for him.

Unfortunately, even in the poor light at dusk, the disguise wasnt good enough to fool the guards. Under the electric lights, the uniform looked green instead of the needed gray. Neave ran for it, but the guards ordered him to stop, threatening to shoot. He had failed. The German soldiers laughed at his pathetic attempt to copy their uniform.